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Global South Africans is a network of South Africans interested in making a difference at home from their vantage points abroad.
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How brain drain can stimulate brain gain
Is brain drain always bad for the country from whom the brains are being drained? Not necessarily. Consider the Philippines which exports a lot of human capital to the US and elsewhere in the form of trained nurses. And yet the country does not go wanting for nurses. To the contrary, the Philippines today has more qualified nurses per capita than the UK.
Ian Goldin,a Global South African based in the UK, Geoffrey Cameron and Meera Balajaran explain how this is so in their important new book, “Exceptional People, How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future”: “The emigration opportunities associated with nursing have stimulated the development of a sophisticated system of high-quality private education that helps to educate low income women. Large numbers of nurses stay after their education.”
Another case in point is Fiji where, according to a study cited by the authors, political uncertainty triggered the largest exodus of skills from a developing country ever recorded. The counterintuitive result of that rush for the exits is that Fiji now boasts a higher proportion of people with university degrees than it did before. Why? Fijians knew that they would need to sharpen their skills to emigrate and so invested heavily in tertiary education. The investment made, more stayed than left. Conditions that were ripe for brain drain contributed to brain gain. It would be interesting to know how many South Africans have skilled themselves up to emigrate only to decide that they would rather put those skills to use at home.
Not that sending countries always necessarily lose if their graduates seek greener pastures elsewhere. Some emigrants return bringing the capital, both physical and intangible, they have accumulated abroad back with them. Goldin and his co-authors cite the example of Luis Miyashiro, a Peruvian who moved back to the land of his ancestors, Japan, under a special diaspora visa program. Miyashiro returned to Lima after a few years to launch a highly successful restaurant chain using Japanese ideas and investment.
A banner for Heritage Day.
Step aside, Oscar, for the Golden Rhino
John Irvin, the British-born director whose credits include Hamburger Hill, The Dogs of War and the BBC adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, is driving the launch of a new festival devoted to South African film. The Mapungubwe Festival, set to debut in London in February, will offer its own set of awards to be known as Golden Rhinos. The first jury was announced at a gala dinner in London on Saturday evening. The organisers hope that the annual event will have multiple venues, including in years ahead the US. More background here in article published last Friday in London’s Independent newspaper.
A pamphlet setting out the basic pillars of the South African brand.
Unmissable Malva
We had the great good fortune to run into Kari Mansfield on September 19 at the South African Association of Business Communities charity golf tournament at Castlewood Country Club in Pleasanton, California. You have not tasted malva pudding until you have tasted Kari’s malva pudding. It’s available at Whole Foods and other fine stores on the West Coast. She shipped a batch to Washington for the Heritage Day braai hosted by Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool and Brand South Africa. Guests were enraptured. Get yours here.
South Africans in the US — the numbers
How many South Africans now reside in the US? The 2000 Census put the number of people born in SA living here at 63 560. The 2010 figures haven’t been released yet. Happily, the US Department of Homeland Security publishes figures by nationality of people receiving green cards. In 2010, the figure for South Africans was 2 758, bringing the total for the decade 2001-10 to 32 902.
Since 1930, 90 368 persons whose previous residence was SA have received legal US residence. That puts an effective upper limit on the size of the SA-born population living legally in the US. It’s fewer than I expected. There’s no doubt, though, that the pace of SA immigration into the US has been growing steadily.
Another surprise was that far more South Africans are obtaining permanent residence in the US than in Canada. Instinctively, I had assumed that Canada, with its more accommodating immigration policy, would be by far the bigger destination. Not so.
Less unexpected is where South Africans are choosing to settle in the US. California and Florida top the charts.
A plurality South Africans obtain green cards as the immediate relatives of South Africans who have already become US citizens. The next largest category is South Africans admitted because of their skills. A much smaller share get in under the “diversity” programme — the green card lottery. A handful are accorded refugee or asylee status. It would be interesting to know more about this last group. I assume these are people whose last residence was in South Africa but whose “well-founded fear of persecution” derives from another country. If not, there is a story here.
Finally, another non-surprise. Most of you are professionals of one kind or another.
Help us brainstorm a new pay-off line for Brand South Africa
We’re working to distill the essence of the distinctive promise South Africa makes to the world as a nation brand and we need your input. Click on the headline to take a quick survey.
If you’re in Maputo for the 10th All-Africa Games, don’t miss the Ekhaya Hospitality Centre Brand South Africa and its partners have set up for Team SA and its supporters.
If you’re going to be Wellington for the Rugby World Cup, stop by the Ekhaya Hospitality Centre Brand South Africa and partner have set up as a base, watering hole and business centre for Team SA and its supporters.
Keystone State Boys Choir sings Nelson Mandela song | izwi
Keystone State Boys Choir sings the Mandela song. Not bad for a bunch kids from Philadelphia. Not bad at all.
Kenya to issue diaspora bonds
Could SA do this?
"In a world where so many people now have access to education and cheap tools of innovation, innovation that happens from the bottom up tends to be chaotic but smart. Innovation that happens from the top down tends to be orderly but dumb."
The chair of South Africa’s International Marketing Council, Anitha Soni, talks about the contribution Global South Africans are making to promoting South Africa as a competitive nation brand. We caught up with her at the launch of the Brand Africa initiative at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Calling all Maties
Stellenbosch Rector and Vice Chancellor Russell Botman is visiting the US and spoke to alumni at the National Press Club in Washington this week. Very inspiring, not just for alumni, but for anyone who wants to see South Africa succeed. The university’s Hope Project, with its focus on teaching and research that can have a real impact on poverty, is particularly impressive. Here’s a wonderful example. The university wants to grow its alumni database in the US. The director of development and alumni relations, Annamia van den Heever, would love to hear from you.
Change of domain
A housekeeping note. We have morphed from an .org into a .net, and since we’re really a network rather than an organisation at this point, that is probably not such a bad thing. The change was not intentional, however. It was forced upon us by an oversight. We weren’t paying attention and our ownership of the globalsouthafricans.org domain expired. At which point it was promptly taken hostage by some entrepreneurial troll who wants us to pay to get it back. We don’t do ransom.
